As 2019 wraps up we’re getting in a few results from our friends over at Buffer sharing all this juicy data around remote work.
Buffer is a company that focuses on making social media management easier for small to large businesses, solopreneur, freelancers, and more. The cool thing about Buffer is that they’re an all-remote team, meaning everyone works from home or their place of most productivity.
They came together this year to gather several data points from work from home folks all over the world. The statistic that stuck out to me was, “What location do you primarily work from?”.
The breakdown was as follows:
84% work from home
8% coworking spaces
4% coffee shops and cafes
3% other
.5% libraries
What’s the most surprising data point for you? For me, I was a tiny bit shocked at how low the coffee shop location was. But the more I thought about it the more it makes sense. Coffee shops are noisy. Whether it’s chatter from the table next to you or from the loud indie music playing throughout the shop.
Planning to go out to a coffee shop can also be an ordeal too! When you commit to working from a coffee shop you then have to navigate traffic, find parking, potentially pay for parking, find a table, and many other cons.
BUT it’s not all bad. When does a coffee shop actually work? When is it a good choice?
Day of no meetings
I tend to plan a coffee shop work day when I have 0 meetings. Sometimes, I’ll stretch that and go even though I have one meeting but only if that meeting is lite weight such as a weekly check-in or a standup. I do not want to head over to a coffee shop if I need to give a presentation or be the subject matter expert at a meeting.
Before or after rush hour
Traffic is rough during rush hour, so I only see it worth heading to a coffee shop if I can be sure I’m not going to run into congestion on the way.
Co-working
There are days where I get that feeling of loneliness and hit up a friend to go and co-work together. This is another huge reason why I’ll make an effort to work from a coffee shop.
Social interaction
Ever have those days where you know if you got out of your house for 2-3 hours you’d feel a little more motivated? I have these days too and they’re a great kick in the butt to put comfy clothes on and head for a 2-3 hour workday at a cafe.
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